Hair dryer

ABSTRACT

A hair dryer that may be closed for carrying and erected for operation, including a base assembly, a hood assembly to be positioned about the head of the user for distributing heated air to the head and a strut assembly for supporting the rigid hood assembly elevated from the base assembly. The strut assembly has one section thereof secured to the base assembly and a second section having means at one end for coupling and uncoupling the hood assembly. One of the sections has an incline cooperating with the other section whereby movement of the other section up the incline, raises the hood to an operative position elevated relative to the base assembly and down the incline to close the hood upon the base for carrying and storage.

United States Patent [1 1 Nopanen 1 Dec. 11, 19.73

[ HAIR DRYER I [75] Inventor: Esko J. Nopanen, Asheboro, N.C.

[73] Assignee: General Electric Company,

Bridgeport, Conn.

(22 Filed: Dec. 14, 1972 21 Appl. No.: 315,159

[52] U.S. Cl 34/99, 34/90, 34/239 [51] Int. Cl A45d 20/24 [58] Field of Search 34/3, 90, 91, 96-101, 34/239; 248/176, 178

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Niemiec et a1 34/99 Rogers et a1 34/99 Primary Ex aminer-Kenneth W. Sprague Assistant Examiner-James C. Yeung Attorney-George R. Powers et a1.

[ 57 ABSTRACT A hair dryer that may be closed for carrying and erected for operation, including a base assembly, a hood assembly to be positioned about the head of the user for distributing heated air to the head and a strut assembly for supporting the rigid hood assembly elevated from the base assembly. The strut assembly has one section thereof secured to the base assembly and a second section having means at one end for coupling and uncoupling the hood assembly. One of the sections has an incline cooperating with the other section whereby movement of the other section up the incline,

raises the hood to an operative position elevated relative to the base assembly and down the incline to close the hood upon the base for carrying and storage.

9 Claims, 10 Drawing Figures MTENTED DEC I1 I975 SHEET 3 CF 5 Pmmmm 11 I915 3,777,405

SHEET k BF 5 PMENHZUBEE H 0915 SHEET 5 OF 5 HAIR DRYER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION I. Field of the Invention This invention relates to hair dryers and, more particularly, to hair dryers having a rigid hood.

2. Description of the Prior Art Hair Dryers generally fall into two types, namely,

those which are usually permanently installed in profesl sional beauty parlors, and those of the household type which are small portable applicances. The professional type is massive, costly, and does not lend itself to feasible utilization in the home. This invention relates particularly to household type hair dryers that utilize a rigid hood.

vOne popular form of a household type hair dryer with a rigid hood comprises a base containing a motorblower-heater assembly and an air duct assembly or the like supporting the hood elevated from the base. The air duct assembly not only supports the hood in its up or operative position but also conducts heated air from the motor-blower-heater assembly in the base to the hood. Typically, the air duct assembly is adjustable up or down to change the height of the hood to accommodate the user. In some of these hair dryers the hood may be disconnected from the-air duct and the air duct folded so that it rests on top of the base unit. The separable hood is then placed over the base unit to cover the folded air duct and latched to the base unit for carrying or storage. In other such hair dryers the air duct assembly is hingedly connected to the base unit at one end and the hood at the other end and is arranged to fold so that the air duct assembly is retained within the hood when the hood is placed on the top of the base unit and again latched. Both of the above-described rigid hood type household hair dryers require considerable manipulation and physical dexterity on the part of the user to erect the hair dryer for operation and to collapse the hair dryer for carrying and storage.

By my invention, there is provided a rigid hood hair dryer that is easy to erect for operational use and to collapse the hair dryer for carrying and storage.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with this invention, there is provided a hair dryer having a rigid hood assembly to be positioned over the head of the user for distributing air to the hair, a base assembly, and means for producing a flow of heated air to be distributed to the hair by the BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of my rigid hood hair dryer erected for operational use.

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view showing my hair dryer erected for operational use in full line and in dotted line to show the hair dryer in the carrying and storage condition.

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of my hair dryer 0 erected for operational use showing the upper height adjustment of the hood of my hair dryer hood in full 1 line and the lower height adjustment of the hood in dotted line. 1

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of my hair dryer in the closed condition for carrying or storage.

FIG. 5 is a fragmental view in cross-section showing a portion of my hair dryer in condition for operational use with the strut assembly adjusted to minimum height elevation.

FIG. 6 is a fragmental cross-sectional view of my hair dryer in condition for operational use showing the strut assembly adjusted to maximum height elevation.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of one section of the hair dryer strut assembly.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of another section of the hair dryer strut assembly that receives telescopically the strut assembly section of FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the upper section of the hair dryer strut assembly showing the air inlet and air outlet openings.

FIG. 10 is a fragmentary perspective view of the hood assembly of my hairdryer taken in the direction of hood assembly, and a strut assembly connecting the base and hood assemblies. The strut assembly includes a first section having one end secured to the base assembly and a second section having means at one end for coupling and uncoupling the hood assembly in air flow communication. One of the strut assembly sections has an incline cooperating with the other section to provide means for movement of said other section up the incline whereby the hood is raised to an operative position elevated relative to the base and down the incline to close the hood upon the base.

It is an object of this invention to provide a hair dryer with a rigid hood assembly that requires very little manual effort to erect for operational use and to close for carrying and storage.

arrow A of FIG. 5 with the air duct assembly removed from the hood assembly.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings in detail, FIG. 1 illustrates my hair dryer in the erected position ready for operational use, such as in the home, and it generally includes a base assembly 10, a rigid hood assembly 11 to be placed over the head of the user, and a strut assembly 12 between the hood assembly and base assembly. In this embodiment of my hair dryer the strut assembly is a hollow air duct assembly throughwhich air flows from the base assembly 10 to the hood assembly 11. The air duct assembly has means for height adjustment of the hood assembly, as by telescoping the secsits on a chair and positions her head within the rigid hood assembly 11. It is to be understood, however, that other rigid hood type hair dryers may also be employed in my invention and that the hair dryer shown in the drawings is merely illustrative of one embodiment of my invention.

With reference to FIGS. 1 and 4, the base assembly 10 includes a housing which contains the usual means for producing a flow of heated air. That is, the housing contains an electric heating means 14 for heating air, and electric motor 16 for rotating impeller means 18. Control means for the hair dryer is a manually operated selector switch 13 accessible from the exterior of the housing. There are also suitable air passages formed in the housing including an ambient air inlet 20 and a heated air outlet 22 which communicates with the air duct assembly 12.

The housing of the base assembly includes a base member 24 and a cover 26 which are secured to each other in any convenient manner. The base member and cover may be made of rigid plastic material of any suitable known type. The top of the cover 26 forms a deck 28. Centrally located in the deck is an ambient air inlet which may be covered by a grill 30 to keep out foreign objects. The air outlet 22 is formed by a tubular section 32 which is molded integrally with cover 26.

The air duct assembly 12 betweenthe base and hood assemblies comprises two sections of air ducts lower duct section 34 and upper duct section 36. These ducts may be made of the same rigid plastic material as that from which the base housing is made. The ducts are hollow tubular members and are generally rectangular in cross-section. The lower duct section 34 comprises a vertically disposed elongated tubular section of similar cross-section to that of the air outlet tubular section 32, however, it is slightly smaller in lateral cross-section so that it can be telescopically slidably moved inside air outlet tubular section 32. Upper duct section 36 interconnects lower duct section 34 and the hood assembly 11. Again, the upper duct section 36 is rectangular in shape and has an air inlet opening 38 near one end to allow air to pass from the lower duct section 34 into the upper duct section 36. At the opposite end of the upper duct section 36 is an air outlet opening 40 that is in air flow communication with the hood assembly.

As seen particularly in FIG. 4, the hood assembly 11 comprises two main rigid plastic molded head receiving members 42 and 44. They are nested with respect to each other in spaced relationship to define an air distributing space or manifold 46 therebetween. The outer shell 42 is air tight, whereas the inner liner 44 has a plurality of air distributing apertures 48 formed throughout the surface thereof for the purpose of directing heated air into the hair of the user. The inner liner 44 has an outwardly and upwardly directed peripheral flange 50 formed integrally therewith which engages the bottom edge of the outer member 42. The top of the outer shell 42 has a handle 52 for carrying the hair dryer when it is in its closed carrying and storage position and also to aid in gripping the hood assembly for applying slight manual force to erect the hood assembly of the hair dryer for operational use.

With reference particularly to FIGS. 1 and 4-8, a detailed description of the air duct assembly 12 and specifically the lower duct section 34 will be discussed. As previously mentioned, tubular section 32 forms air outlet 22 and telescopically fitting within the tubular section 32 is lower duct section 34 having front 35, rear 37, and side 39 panels. Tubular section 32 has a recessed guide means 54 one on each opposite side of the interior of the tubular section 32. These recessed guide means may be molded at the time the tubular section is formed. Lower duct section 34 has a vertical guide track 56 to aid in orienting the lower duct section and tubular section. 32 relative to each other for ease of raising and lowering the lower duct section 34 thereby adjusting the vertical height of hood assembly 11 relative to the base assembly 10. The upper edge 59 of air outlet tubular section 32 has an inwardly directed lip 61 and the lower edge 63 of duct section 34 has an outwardly directed shoulder 65. Lip 61 and shoulder 65 cooperate with each other to provide stop means that prevents complete removal of lower duct section 34 from air outlet tubular section 32. It will be realized that the guide track 56 will be slightly smaller so that they may be moved relative to the recess guide means 54 in the side walls of tubular section 32. The upper edges of the opposite walls that carry the guide track 56 of lower duct section 34 has a flange 58 on opposite sides thereof which extends above the other two sides 60 and 62 of lower duct section 34. Integral with the flanges 58 are slide members 64 which are inclined approximately l5 from the horizontal. The degree of inclination may vary depending upon the desired height of the hood assembly above the base assembly when the hair dryer is up in its operational position.

Upper duct section 36 is shown in perspective in FIG. 9 and is an elongated box having generally rectangular shaped side 76, top 72, bottom 74, rear 73, and forward 92 panels. The upper duct section 36 has two openings one in top panel 72 which is opening 40 located at or near one end of the upper duct section and the other opening 38 is in bottom panel 74. This latter opening is located nearer the opposite end from that of opening 40. Along the bottom edge of both side panels 76 are outwardly extending guide tracks 78. Located at the top of the side panels 76 and integrally formed with top panel 72 are outwardly extending guide tracks 80. The entire upper duct section 36 may be molded from suitable plastic with all of the panels integrally formed together to prevent leakage of air except through openings 38 and 40.

As can be seen particularly in FIGS. 1, 5 and 6, the structural cooperation between upper duct section 36 and lower duct section 34 provides for the upper duct section to be attached to the lower duct section but slidably movable relative to the lower duct section. This is accomplished by slide members 64 riding on lower guide track 78 and lower guide track 78 supported on the top edge 79 of front panel 35 and top edge 81 of rear panel 37. By this arrangement then the entire upper duct section may be slidably, movably guided up and down the incline of lower duct section 34. FIGS. 1, 5 and 6 show the upper duct section in its fully up position whereby air inlet opening 38 registers with the air outlet opening of lower duct section 34. A stop element 83 may be provided so that when the air duct assembly is being erected the stop element 83 abuts the outside of rear panel 37 of lower duct section 34 and causes upper duct section opening 38 to stop automatically in registration and orientation with the opening of lower duct section 34.

With reference particularly to FIGS. 5 and 10, the coupling and uncoupling structural arrangement between upper air duct section 36 and hood assembly 11 is shown. FIG. 10 shows a perspective fragmentary view of the hood assembly looking in the direction of arrow A of FIG. 5 with the air duct assembly removed. The manifold 46 is spanned between the inner liner 44 and outer shell 42 by supportpanels 82 on both sides of air duct opening 84 in outer shell 42. Molded in each of these support panels 82 is a channel 86 slightly larger in dimension than the upper guide tracks of upper air duct section 36. When the hair dryer hood assembly is in its completely up position a stop member 90, which is a raised projection from the forward panel 92 of upper duct section 36 abuts against the interior of hood liner 44. When this is accomplished then the upper air outlet opening 40 is in registration with the manifold 46 of the hood assembly so that air passing through upper duct section 36 may freely pass into the manifold 46 for subsequent distribution to the users hair. The air flow path from the heated air flow producing means in the base assembly through the air duct assembly and hood assembly is shown by arrows in FIG. 5.

FIG. 4 shows the hair dryer in its closed condition ready for carrying or storage. It will be noted that the entire air duct assembly 12 is housed within the hood assembly 11 in this position. To erect the hair dryer for operational use the single latch 94 at the front of the hair dryer is released to permit relative movement between the hood assembly and base assembly. With the latch released the user by griping the handle 52 merely exerts upwardly and forwardly manual force whereupon the hood assembly 11 travels up the inclined upper duct section 36 until stop member 90 abuts against the shoulder of the opening in the inner liner 42 and with continued upwardly inclined force both the hood assembly and upper duct section 36 travel up the incline of lower duct section 34. This movement continues until stop element 83 engages rear panel 37 of lower duct section 34 so that opening 38 is oriented with the air outlet of lower duct section 34. It of course will be noted that the movement of the hood up the upper duct section is accomplished by the cooperative relationship between channel 86 and the upper guide tracks 80 of the upper air duct section. Also, the upper air duct section 36 is easily movable up the incline of the lower duct section 34 again by the cooperative relationship of the slide members 64, the channel formed between the slide members 64 and top edge 79 of front panel 35 and the top edge 81 of rear panel 37 with the lower guide tracks 78 on both sides of the upper air duct section 36. FIG. 2 shows the hood assembly erecting sequence wherein the closed position of the hair dryer is shown in dotted line and the up or operational position in full line and the-arrows indicate the direction the hood assembly travels when erected. Force assistance means in the form of an upper coil spring element 96 and lower coil spring element 98 may, if desired, be employed both as a means of retaining the hair dryer in its up or operational position and also to minimize the amount of force the user must exert to erect the hair dryer as described above. Coil spring element 96 may be made of a ribbon of spring steel and has one end thereof secured to end panel 92 of upper duct section 36 as by a rivet 100 with the spring element passing through a hole 102 in the inner liner 44 and the coiled portion being retained within manifold 46. When the hood assembly is down in its carrying or storage position, as shown in FIG. 4, the spring element is in tension with the coiled portion exerting force against the inside of inner liner 44. In the same manner, lower spring element 98 has one end of the spring element secured to the inside wall of lower duct section 34, as by a rivet 104, with the spring element passing along bottom panel 74 of upper duct section 36 and passing through hole 106 into the interior of upper duct section 36 where the coiled portion of the spring element is re- When the latch 94 is released spring element 96 urges the hood assembly up the incline of upper duct section 36 and spring element 98 urges upper duct section 36 up the incline of the upper edge of lower duct section 34.

To close the hair dryer so that the hood assembly is positioned on top of the base assembly with the air duct assembly housed therewithin, the user simply exerts suflicient downward and rearward force so that the force of the two spring elements described above is overcome whereupon the upper air duct moves downwardly and rearwardly at an incline relative to the lower air duct section until it travels as far as it is structurally permitted and then the hood assembly is moved downwardly andv rearwardly at an incline on the upper duct section until it is in the fully closed position as shown in FIG. 4, whereupon latch 94 may be secured and the hair dryer is in condition for carrying and storage.

The foregoing is a description of the preferred embodiment of the invention and variations may be made thereto without departingfrom the spirit of the invention, as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. Hair dryer apparatus comprising:

a. a base assembly,

b. means for producing a flow of heated air,

0. a rigid hood assembly adapted to be positioned about the head of the user and having means for distributing air to the head; and

d. a strut assembly interconnecting the base assembly and hood, said strut assembly including;

I i. a first section having one end secured to the base,

and i ii. a second section having means at one end for coupling and uncoupling the hood,

one of said sections having an incline cooperating with the other section whereby movement of said other section up the incline raises the hood to an operative position elevated relative to the base assembly and movement down the incline closes the hood upon the base.

2. The hair dryer apparatus of claim 1 wherein the incline of the one section of the strut assembly and the other section have cooperating track means to allow relative movement between the two sections.

3. The hair dryer apparatus of claim 2 wherein the first section is movable vertically up and down relative to the base assembly for adjusting the height of the hood assembly when in the elevated position.

4. The hair dryer apparatus of claim I wherein the means for producing a How of heated air is in the base assembly and the strut assembly is a hollow air duct for directing heated air from said producing means in the base assembly to said hood assembly.

5. The hair dryer apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first section has the incline and the second section is movable up the incline.

6. Hair dryer apparatus comprising:

a. a base assembly including means for producing a flow of heated air,

b. a rigid hood assembly adapted to be positioned about the head of the user and having means for distributing air to the head; and

c. an air duct assembly interconnecting the base assembly and hood assembly, said air duct assembly including;

i. a first vertical section secured at one end to the base assembly and the other end having inclined slide means, and

ii. a second inclined section slidably secured to the first section slide means and having means for coupling and uncoupling the hood assembly,

said sections cooperating with each other whereby movement of said second section up the inclined slide means raises the hood assembly to an operative position elevated relative to the base assembly and movement down the inclined slide means closes the hood assembly upon the base assembly.

7. The hair dryer apparatus of claim 6 wherein the inclined slide means of the first section of the air duct 

1. Hair dryer apparatus comprising: a. a base assembly, b. means for producing a flow of heated air, c. a rigid hood assembly adapted to be positioned about the head of the user and having means for distributing air to the head; and d. a strut assembly interconnecting the base assembly and hood, said strut assembly including; i. a first section having one end secured to the base, and ii. a second section having means at one end for coupling and uncoupling the hood, one of said sections having an incline cooperating with the other section whereby moveMent of said other section up the incline raises the hood to an operative position elevated relative to the base assembly and movement down the incline closes the hood upon the base.
 2. The hair dryer apparatus of claim 1 wherein the incline of the one section of the strut assembly and the other section have cooperating track means to allow relative movement between the two sections.
 3. The hair dryer apparatus of claim 2 wherein the first section is movable vertically up and down relative to the base assembly for adjusting the height of the hood assembly when in the elevated position.
 4. The hair dryer apparatus of claim 1 wherein the means for producing a flow of heated air is in the base assembly and the strut assembly is a hollow air duct for directing heated air from said producing means in the base assembly to said hood assembly.
 5. The hair dryer apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first section has the incline and the second section is movable up the incline.
 6. Hair dryer apparatus comprising: a. a base assembly including means for producing a flow of heated air, b. a rigid hood assembly adapted to be positioned about the head of the user and having means for distributing air to the head; and c. an air duct assembly interconnecting the base assembly and hood assembly, said air duct assembly including; i. a first vertical section secured at one end to the base assembly and the other end having inclined slide means, and ii. a second inclined section slidably secured to the first section slide means and having means for coupling and uncoupling the hood assembly, said sections cooperating with each other whereby movement of said second section up the inclined slide means raises the hood assembly to an operative position elevated relative to the base assembly and movement down the inclined slide means closes the hood assembly upon the base assembly.
 7. The hair dryer apparatus of claim 6 wherein the inclined slide means of the first section of the air duct assembly and the second section have cooperating track means to allow relative movement between the two sections.
 8. The hair dryer apparatus of claim 6 wherein the first vertical section is movable vertically up and down relative to the base assembly for adjusting the height of the hood assembly when in the elevated position.
 9. The hair dryer apparatus of claim 8 wherein spring means cooperating with the rigid hood assembly and second inclined section and spring means cooperating with the first vertical section and the second inclined section are provided to assist in raising the hood assembly. 